surely four bodies that may have been trapped underneath that ship another very important moment is going to be when they just start to lift the ship they're going to try and send the divers in to search for essentially for the hole that little water and whatever managed to sink the ship and when the divers find out they're going to have to repair that hole and pump all the water out before they can lift the ship so in both of those operations they met that may also at the same time hopefully provide answers as to where these remaining fifteen bodies are and also the answer to everyone's talking about why this ship sank a mountain of cuddly toys never to be played were they the flowers and candles a testament to the children among those who drowned when the pleasure boat to bulgaria sank in the volga last sunday. the most we study together for a year she never had arguments with a new one she was

a very kind girl and was always ready to help. the ship sank in just three minutes turning a summer afternoon on the river into a scene of horror didn't talk is that people were basically buried alive in anti-matter coffin we managed to get out through the windows i was there with my ten year old daughter i couldn't rescue her she swallowed too much water when i was pulled out i realized my child was gone in the chaos to escape many other families were also torn apart one five year old boy lost his mother and grandmother and was only kept afloat by a man who grabbed his hand another man unable to hold on to his son in the strong current oil slick had to watch him drown in front of him yuri was the deejay for the disco on the bottom deck he only just managed to escape. and i remember clearly that water was rising very quickly it was a matter of seconds. i survived because we saw the broken window and the sailor

started pushing people out through it at that moment waves pushed me up on the surface and then i saw that the board was already underwater. over half the bulgaria's two hundred eight passengers and crew including the captain his wife and child never made it out meanwhile as the arabella another pleasure boat arrived at the scene she was surrounded by people screaming and drowning unable to reach the banks of the vast river three kilometers away. as we approached it was hard to distinguish in the dark water people who were alive from the rubble that was floating around people were in panic when we rescued them in a state of shock some suffering from other traumas they were all covered in oil fuel that was leaking from a sunken ship it was a terrifying picture i have to say despite a huge search and rescue operation after the initial survivors were picked up a few others were found. the divers and cranes working in this water have been

trying to recover just something of the lives lost and families destroyed in those few terrible minutes but they've also been working on the question the cost so much why did the bulgaria sink and sink so fast. as the list of bodies recovered from the ship grew so did the number of revelations about an ageing dangerous and badly managed vessel eyewitnesses people connected with the ship came forward with damning accounts of its poor condition and the stingy management who forced it to keep sailing. i became captain of the vessel in two thousand and seven ship had been renovated for a while before that there were big problems with the engines and power generators repeatedly mention that to the management and even had an argument with the port authorities say they were lied to the ship was only supposed to carry one hundred forty people but was loaded with over two hundred they were told it was carrying twenty. more tales of bound including

a broken engine tricity generators failing so that no s.o.s. signal or tunnel instructions could be issued and blocks emergency exits criminal cases have been opened and arrests been made to the bulgaria sinking and more controversially into why two ships which reach the scene before the arabella didn't pick up a single person but reports the crew members instead took her pictures on their mobile phones where you have a cell with you and you with all the passengers were shown that there were people on a raft many hundreds of cuts and injuries that were bleeding we yelled for help i saw the boards passers by in a different direction towards. the slow process of raising the bulgaria has now started up with it will come the potential for answers but also terrible memories in particular associated with the ship's place where a group of children were gathered when the ship sank. just some of the young

victims in what will go down as one of russia's worst and most avoidable shipping disasters tom bottom part. while the captain of a ship who helped to rescue seventy seven people from the sinking poll gary has been describing the horrific disaster scene and that interview with maserati you can see it in full in about twenty minutes time or find it online right now at our website c.n.n. dot com we've got all the latest reports on the intense search and recovery operation since the tragedy happened you can keep up to date there and while you're online repertoire check out our you tube channel for more stories and of course of the best videos. is easy you. need to.

with our top stories of the week this is the weekly on artsy now british politicians are trying to distance themselves from rupert murdoch denying they were close to his media empire in the wake of the phone hacking scandal but prime minister david cameron has admitted that he's held more than twenty meetings with executives in the past year but is now desperately trying to rescue news cause crumbling reputation today the media mogul made a second apology for the phone hacking scandal you already admitted serious wrongdoing on the pages of british newspapers and that the family of a murdered teenager whose voicemail was intercepted and is r.t. is that laura reports it's a watershed moment for the cozy relationship between britain's politicians and the press. but every media outlet in town t.v. read you even the sky. when art imitates life the long running simpsons

takes a shot at its own no rupert murdoch aka montgomery burns in an episode broadcast apparently coincidentally this week. but it's not the only piece of timing in the extraordinary phone hacking case that seems to get more scandalous every day the list of something like four thousand names which the police have have since about two thousand and four two thousand and five and yet they promise facie evidence of criminal activity by these individuals and boy by the murdoch empire and yet they have not acted on it so why now just as the murdoch deal to take control of satellite t.v. giant b. sky b. look sure to go ahead his rival the guardian newspaper releases catastrophic allegation. of amoral journalists and their shady practices that when the deal

collapses the times for example which currently loses money you could have transferred some of the profits from. investing in the times and if you are for example. the guardian or the daily telegraph you would welcome that it's not just rival newspapers who stand to gain from murdoch's empire crumbling the b.b.c. could retake t.v. territory lost to b. sky b. and the labor party which was wounded by years of relentless attacks by murdoch papers can finally take revenge but where will all this lead be. you know. that would suit the government just fine the british press is famous for its shop teeth and no holds barred doggedness particularly where its own government

is concerned prime minister david cameron has all but shut down the press complaints commission and already talks of statutory controls to govern print journalists back in springfield mr burns is to watch it as the townspeople open up their own newspaper and he's almost right we possible can truly the media. rupert murdoch. murdoch found as did mr burns that you just can't buy all the newspapers those outside his control have been gunning for him for years and this time they may have succeeded just as he looks set to consolidate control over a launch section of the u.k.'s media markets the drugs being pulled out from under him and it's all over the hidden scandal now revealed that the police have known about it for years nor am it or treat. still ahead for you this hour on our

worries about debt default we examine why the u.s. is on the brink of a financial nightmare and what it might do to try and avoid. the story of an arab community forced from their land a century ago and still have no right to return. a new round of nato airstrikes has rattled off the libyan capital tripoli as colonel gadhafi valid never to leave his country in the face of assaults by the alliance and the rebels this comes off to be a position that became the legitimate authority in the country in the eyes of more nations the u.s. and thirty other states recognize them at a diplomatic meeting on friday saying they would deal with them until an interim government is in place the recognition by the contact group on libya also gives the rebels access to billions of dollars of khadafi frozen assets in u.s. banks political commentator ted rall says the move is a radical shift from the international standpoint. the united states usually

doesn't extend diplomatic recognition to a regime that is not in the capital that isn't in power and doesn't even seem likely to be able to achieve power anytime soon but you can look at the situation in afghanistan during the one thousand nine hundred sixty two thousand and one civil conflict there between the taleban in the northern alliance the northern alliance they were the former regime that had power in kabul in the diplomatic relations with the west even though the taleban controlled ninety five percent of the country it's almost just wishful thinking and frankly if i were a diplomat i would find it disturbing it's a bizarre situation i mean if the u.s. knows who these people are they're not seeing and certainly there's no doubt that traditionally there's always been a very high component to find these in even around benghazi so unrealistic to assume that that is not still the case the u.s. has an amazing how it should be a skids full of hundred dollar bills to third world countries and expecting them to

end up in the right hand and really going to happen. well at the high level recognition of the rebels may bolster their spirit but it's a different story and combat fierce fighting for a key eastern oil town has ended with heavy casualties among the opposition and as artie's daniel bushell reports it's the thought that france is now trying the talking tactic with the libyan regime after failing to deliver a knockout punch to caffeine. books is like bragging will destroy the reply they're often wrong and gets a surprise. french foreign minister should pay boosted france would win libya in quote days or weeks the war's into a fourth month and the final round in sight. because the with his western allies seem short their little opponents fighting back well it's not just an embarrassment for sarkozy it's an embarrassment for. the whole west paris even

admits libya's rebels but in turn some somalia. went to libya for training within the last two or three years that's documented we have to fly records and everything else so it seems strange in many ways the whole western support of some of the rebel groups in libya must be questioned because in some cases i think we are effectively arming al-qaeda it's all making a mockery of the u.n. vote on foreign intervention in the country. by leading it in. giving. none of. this. witnesses the two of libya's causing widespread atrocities for every one military personnel that were supposedly a casualty there were ten civilians. fraud's categorically ruled out cindy grilled

troops predict is the only way mail to break the libyan deadlock the moves the splitting the nato coalition silvio berlusconi head of key italy admits invading libya was a mistake. did the us vote full of bombs would bring havoc in libya. said the latest count supports the quote lloyd lee diplomat speak for a role with elections just an annoying month away saw go advisors said a successful war could break the record his chances instead one paper writes libya's becoming a slow motion call crash for france is deeply unpopular president. because these are jogging excessive sweating is understandable this is libyan sprint is turning into a marathon don't you see paris. with the top headlines of the week this is r.t. and the weekly time is running out for american politicians to agree on the next

move when sorting out its soaring debt the deadline to lift the nation's fourteen point three trillion dollars debt ceiling is looming ever closer as lawmakers struggle to find a solution president obama is urging democrats and republicans to ignore their differences to avert armageddon leading credit rating agencies say there's a risk the u.s. could fail to resolve the deadlock quickly or effectively but zeke miller from the business insider website says both parties understand the dangers of further boring . what the credit agencies do and you know we heard from moody's on wednesday and then from s. and p. both warning severe consequences if the government doesn't raise the debt ceiling in time including a possible downgrade from the government's aaa rating and that increases borrowing costs not just for the federal government but for seven thousand mr pollard is across the country the united states i don't think anybody thinks united states is getting away with this any longer they've sort of reached the point where every

everybody in both parties agrees that the debt is just too high and they're just they can't borrow any more you can't be borrowing for you know the sort of annual expenditures it's not a sustainable model for any country if this debt ceiling goes up or if the u.s. credit rating is downgraded and that would have you know sort of x. prolong the current the current recession and slow down the recovery. well things are a little better in europe with italy now the focus of stopping the eurozone from heading into oblivion rooms approved a tough seventy billion euro package to avoid a debt wipeout it's the euro zone's third largest economy could prove too big for its neighbors to bail out meanwhile eight out of ninety european banks have failed stress tests to see if they could survive another financial crisis economics professor patrick miller says some e.u. countries may have to accept default as wealthier nations no longer want to pay for the cost of the rescue. but i think we've known all along that a lot of banks in europe and north would not stress tests if these

stress tests included the possibility of sovereign default because of course they've got loads of greek and portuguese and spanish debt and so there was never any question that one of the reasons why it might be in germany is interest to greece is that it's if it doesn't it's going to have a banking crisis of its own and will have to bailout its own banks but i think the judgment of the taxpayer is they'd rather be their own buying if they have to then keep on giving money to greeks who may never get to give it back to them so there's nobody really impressed by these rich northern countries and therefore the other countries have to think of some way of getting by and that's going to be default. all right as we are at the week's top stories here on the weekly let's take a moment out so you check out some other headlines from around the world today the u.s. led coalition has started handing over control of some of afghanistan's territories

to local security forces the central region has become the first of seven areas where that to happen ahead of the end of combat operations in the country in two thousand and fourteen senior ministers and foreign ambassadors marked the event by visiting the province which remained relatively peaceful throughout the new decade long occupation of afghanistan. and as well a president hugo chavez is back in cuba for more cancer treatment including chemotherapy no more cells have been found after surgery to remove a tumor from his region he transferred some powers to his ministers during his absence but didn't agree to opposition calls for a temporary handover of all presidential authority his battle with cancer has raised doubts over his fitness to lead the country but officially he still plans to run for reelection next year. egypt's prime minister has begun a major cabinet reshuffle after public protests demanding political reform again flared up in the country the foreign minister has resigned while the two new deputy

prime ministers have been appointed the interim prime minister forced to make changes after widespread anger that little appears to have changed at the top since mubarak the former president was ousted. on monday the israeli parliament passed a law forbidding its citizens from boycotting jewish settlements on occupied palestinian territory the decision has already been strongly criticized for violating freedom of expression and damaging the image of israel as a democratic government prime minister benjamin netanyahu faced a stormy parliamentary session on wednesday as he tried to defend the bill the legislation imposes fines on israeli settlement activists and allows settlers to demand compensation. from the boycott divestment and sanctions movement in ramallah says the. only make the pro palestinian movement stronger. has never been a democracy and can never be a democracy so long as it's an apartheid state so long as it has tens of flaws

discriminating between its jewish and non jewish citizens so long as it denies millions of palestinian refugees the right to return home and so long as it continues with its occupation of the west bank including is true as well as gaza so a country committing such violations of international law and of basic human rights cannot call itself a democracy professor illan puppet israeli historian maybe had to try to when he said israel is ahead in full which is a democracy only for the master class not for everyone if anything israel is going it's really pushing fast forward in digging the grave of its occupation and apartheid as long as palestinian rights are not respected by israel as long as the occupation continues apartheid continues then i look refugee rights continues palestinians have no choice but to continue to resist to continue to struggle well in the struggle for land rights in israel there's one place that still a deserted territory used to be

a flourishing palestinian community but now israelis are going it up as a luxury getaway paullus live reports. nestled in the mountains of jerusalem are the remains of a once bustling arab community only the memories of those who once lived here have survived intact i feel is having to come back and to bring. my dream and. to sing the hard since this rain. also to remind. my choir that. your coup de graff among the cacti and figure trees but in one nine hundred forty eight just before the state of israel was declared his family evacuated unlike the hundreds of arab villages that disappeared in forty eight and sixty seven most of the original houses of lifter are still here so they only were heard shooting.

they will shoot through the whole the whole day with the hope that they will shoot through. our mother took us inside the room in the corner and then the table so as to protect us you could was one of seven hundred thousand palestinians who became a refugee in one nine hundred forty eight his childhood home was quickly absorbed by the newly established jewish state almost inevitable as the man who lived his house in london for. if he was forced to do just because he was three it and he is considered as absentee and he lost the property in the early one nine hundred fifty s. jews moved into the abandoned homes like you and your husband's parents they were also refugees fleeing arab countries we life had become dangerous after israel was created these ready government sent him to live in lifter he only says to prevent arab owners from returning or in the came here on live here years without water

without electricity the came here to jerusalem for the memory here is very important most of the original two hundred jewish families left because life in the mountains was difficult and the government was slow to develop the area no one has lived in these how this for forty six years all that remains are stone walls where wild flowers and grass no go left or is empty. and it's into that emptiness that the israeli government now plans to build more than two hundred luxury homes a chicago tell shops and a museum insisting they'll preserve the area's history we will find ourselves with a neighborhood where history has been conserved there will also be documentation and the story will be told of who live there as we do in all the neighborhoods of jerusalem but maybe luckier could say it's palestinian land and a double injustice why you want to destroy our house.

yanni. for the roots real world came from anywhere in this way i can in my village and come back. return back to my privilege and live in. this new me. and. so i'm going for palestinians lifter is a physical reminder of injustice and survival but for a fair number of israelis it's an eyesore and they'd rather not be reminded of what happened here every time they drive into jerusalem policy r t lifter. he is coming to you live from the heart of the russian capital now are several moscow streets are impossible right now but not because of the notorious traffic jams they've been sealed off to temporarily become the realm of the fast and furious the annual moscow city racing show was a full throttle in a four wheeled frenzy that suv drivers pushing the pedal to the metal doing each

other tv's. to pick it all off or rather push it all off as they send this i'm lucky seven hundred metres at the end of the bungee yet there was somebody inside a female member of the audience who is hopefully well strapped in both women story the woman and machine emerged on stage and even though the heavy rain couldn't stop formula one's cars from speeding past the kremlin it's a sort of rehearsal for the f one grand prix which russia will host in three years' time. all right i'll be back with a recap of today's news on the week's top stories in just a few. vision

disciplinary. words. could the penitentiary system transform a criminal into a law abiding citizen. and prison life behind bars.

with today's top stories of the week this is the weekly. cruiser from the bottom of the. matter of minutes last sunday claiming around one hundred thirty lives so the operation will provide answers to why the catastrophe happened in the first place. the news is now desperately trying to rescue his media. which has been severely damaged by the. libyan rebels now have full diplomatic recognition from washington

and with. frozen in the u.s. meanwhile nato has intensified attacks on the capital tripoli. the libyan leader never to leave. as america faces up to the possibility of default europe's debt crisis contagion piles more pressure on the u.s. congress needs to raise the debt ceiling to avoid default while on the verge of needing . hears from the captain of a vessel who screwed to the rescue of survivors in the tragedy from last week. captains out thank you very much for this interview was the first to come to the rescue of the sinking cruise ship bulgaria how did you get to know about the tragedy. yes we were the first to help we were sailing in the same direction as the

bulgaria and we picked up on the radio just bits of conversations between some ships we couldn't make out what the ships were but we heard them talk of seeing people overboard and speculating that it looked like a boat or a small ship had capsized once we heard that we put on more speed to get there faster when we did arrive at the tragedy site we saw terrible things and only when we realise that it was the pleasure boat boat geria that it sunk to the true scope of the disaster strike us. how long did it take you to get to the scene. but you know i would say about five to ten minutes fifteen at most from the moment we heard the radio talk but it all happened very quickly as we were nearing the site we began to figure out how many people there were in the water although that was hard to do because there was a lot of rubble floating around as well it was very hard to pick out individual people from among the floating debris it was truly a tragic picture that we saw what condition where those people where they panic stricken what were the same.